WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Smith beat odds to win medal
By Gary Abbott Whenever somebody doubts Rodney
Smith, you better watch out. A 1992 Olympic bronze medalist in Greco-Roman and a two-time Olympian, Rodney became one of America’s great- est Greco stars even when the odds were against him. “Because so many people said I could-
n’t do it, I kept trying. I am an Olympic guy. When everything is on the line, dur- ing an Olympic year, I came through. I take criticism well. I keep it in my pocket and it motivates me,” said Smith. Growing up in Springfield, Mass., Rodney never imagined that he would ever wrestle, let alone become a world- class competitor. “I got involved in wrestling because of
an injury in basketball. I thought I was pretty good. Springfield is the home of basketball. We all grew up playing hoops. In junior high, I had Osgood-Schlatter dis- ease in both knees and I couldn’t play. I’d put out the towels and water for the team. The wrestling coach saw me do that every day. He said perhaps you can still participate in sports, and you could try wrestling. I said no, but he said that maybe we could get some special knee pads. He went out and got that done,” said Smith. Once he was in the room, Smith had to
wrestle the class bully every day in prac- tice. When Smith was able to beat the toughest guy in school, he realized he might have a future in this sport. Smith could not make the varsity wrestling team at Putnam Voc Tech as a sophomore and much of his junior year, but got a big break when the starter in his weight class flunked out. “It turned around. I went 0-12 as a jun-
ior, but in my senior year, I lost only one match, the finals of the states. It was funny. All I wanted to do was win states, graduate high school and work my trade, which was in radio and TV. When I didn’t win states, I thought I was done,” said Smith. Smith wanted to go to Springfield College, and when he didn’t get accept- ed, he made plans to join the U.S. Marines. He had also been recruited to play football at Div. III Western New England College. On the day he was scheduled to leave for Marine basic train- ing, Smith got his acceptance letter from
32 USA Wrestler
Rodney Smith captured a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympic Games.
WNEC. He was able to get out of his enlistment and went to college, and soon found himself wrestling once again. “I was a different athlete in college. I
had a really good coach, and some very influential people behind me, including my school counselor. My mom was also influential, because education was first in my family. I also had a good training situ- ation, with two All-Americans on my wrestling team,” said Smith. Smith was a two-time All-American for
Coach Bob Skelton at WNEC, placing fourth and fifth at the nationals. It was during college when he learned about wrestling in the U.S. Army, and soon found a way to continue his career. “My junior year, the Greco-Roman
World Cup was in Albany. They also had a college tournament, the Great Dane Open, and I won it. The Army team was there for the World Cup, along with the Russians and other teams. I went and talked to Derrick Waldroup, because he had been in Sports Illustrated and I want- ed him to sign the magazine for me. I asked him about wrestling for the Army,” said Smith. Waldroup referred him to Chuck Africano, an Army wrestler who also went to WNEC, and the two were soon training together. Africano introduced Smith to longtime Army coach Floyd Winter, who helped Smith fill out the proper paperwork for him to get enlisted and try out for the
Army program. “We had a strong team. In my first
training camp with Coach Tony Thomas, I saw that he was a genius. We didn’t train like an average team. I came in as a freestyler, but in the Army, you needed to go both styles. Coach Thomas had us go to Europe to train for three months. We also went to Cuba and Russia. I was exposed to a lot of Greco-Roman greats, and that turned the corner for me. We were wrestling the best in Europe. I never changed my style when I did Greco, always keeping my low level exchanges and drags. We were always in great shape,” said Smith. In 1991, Smith had his best season in Greco-Roman, placing third at both the U.S. Open and the World Team Trials. “I felt it then. I actually believed. When I
took third, I knew it was definitely possi- ble. I was just a step away. For me, it was technique. I did a lot of scouting and video study before many guys did it. I had a great diet, didn’t cut weight and lived a great lifestyle. I was healthy and I was disciplined. My mindset was focused,” said Smith. Smith had already learned that his atti-
tude was the key to taking the next step. “In 1991, when guys beat me, I didn’t
make excuses. I took responsibility. When I took ownership of my losses, saw them as building blocks for my success and was honest with myself, I made big gains. I worked on my gut wrench, my lift and my changeoff, and I really focused on my drag. I would do 500-600 drags every practice. I had a move nobody could stop in the United States,” said Smith. In 1992, Rodney had a memorable
year, winning the U.S. Open, the prelimi- nary Olympic Trials and the Final Olympic Wrestle-off. The kid from Western Mass who wanted to play basketball was going to represent the United States in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain in Greco-Roman wrestling. It was during the Olympic Training Camp when Smith truly started to see himself as a possible Olympic medalist. “My teammates Travis West, Dan Henderson, Dennis Hall, Shawn Sheldon and I drilled together, talked about win- ning gold medals and built a bond. Our team captain, Dennis Koslowski, really helped. He said, ‘This is your time. There Continued on page 35
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